Mansuma Issa, Chairman, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ilorin branch, has advocated capital punishment for corrupt public servants in the country.
Issa,
who made the suggestion in llorin, Kwara, on Sunday while speaking with
newsmen, also said that the punishment should be extended to other
African countries.
He decried the
level of corruption in Africa, especially in Nigeria, and said that
capital punishment would stem graft and brazen looting of public funds.
According
to him, countries like Singapore, China, Taiwan, Vietnam and South
Korea which adopted death penalty to curb corruption had succeeded in
fight against corruption.
The NBA
chairman said that corruption had become endemic in Africa and had
necessitated the association’s support for the corruption war being
fought by the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
He
lamented that funds which would have been spent on the health,
education and agriculture as well as for the fight against terrorism
were diverted to individual pockets.
He called for the strengthening of the judiciary so that offenders could face trial in accordance with the law.
Issa
said that the Nigerian judiciary was still operating pre-independence
pattern and in colonial courts where judges still wrote in long hands,
describing the act as “very stressful and retrogressive’’.
He
appealed to the federal and state governments to provide the judiciary
with verbatim recording machines to ease their assignments.
He assured that judges in the country could still be trusted, especially in the fight against corruption.
Issa,
however, admitted that there might be few cases of corruption in the
judiciary and urged the disciplinary committee of NBA not to take the
issue of corruption in the judiciary lightly.
He said that any judge found guilty should be dealt with accordingly.
On
Constitution amendment, he said that the 1979 Constitution was well
crafted except for the variation in the laws of the principles of
federalism and the control of resources.
He
called for the modification of those areas of the Constitution, noting
that there was no “perfect constitution’’ anywhere in the world but a
“workable constitution”.
Issa
disclosed that the greatest challenge facing NBA in Kwara was
allegations of diversion of clients’ funds by some of its members.
He
warned that anyone found wanting in such allegation would be forwarded
to the national disciplinary committee of the association for necessary
action.
He urged the government to
improve the condition of the prisons, saying that it was also part of
the challenges the association faced while fighting for the right of its
clients.
He described the condition
of Nigerian prisons as embarrassing and dehumanising and said that
inmates should not be treated as enemies of the people.
Photo Credit: NAN Photo
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